Dia dieciocho — Three Men and a Tent

Let’s assume for a minute that you are an avid follower of the TMAAT blog, which means that you will be keenly awaiting the outcome of last nights cliffhanger….spoiler alert, we decide we are getting to Africa come what may! It’s really, really difficult for either of us to accept that we won’t now be able to cycle every single mile, but neither of us want to give in or blow another eleventy billion pounds on cancelled hotels and flights….we have to get to Africa and quite simply, that is that.

Given we are in Madrid the most obvious choice for us then is to catch a train as far south as we can to catch up as many days as possible. If we can get to Seville early tomorrow (Tuesday) we reckon we can then cycle 80 miles to our originally planned campsite and then still arrive in Tarifa (a hotel for goodness sake with a bed you don’t have to blow up and a toilet with a seat!!!!) on Wednesday.

A quick browse of the Renfe website confirms that A/ yes you can get a train from Madrid to Seville and B/ you can add a “bicicleta” to your ticket by simply ticking a box…..”muchos, muchos gracias signor..muy bienne”

A slightly darker moment quickly follows when I realise that the earliest possible available ticket tomorrow is at 1900 which is of no use to us at all.

After a quick rethink we agree, reluctantly that we should instead book tickets for the first train on Wednesday (0700) and then do whatever it takes to cycle the 130 plus miles to Tarifa …it’s not a popular choice but it’s the only option we have.

Tickets booked and paid for there is some level of contentment in the TMAAT camp that we have a banker plan, it’s nots great but it gets us where we need to be when we need to be there.

As the eternal “what if” member of the team I have a sneaky peak at “is there somewhere other than Seville we could try and get to” which reveals the joyful, majestical, mecca that is Jerez de La Frontera…some 90k beyond Seville and tickets available for 7am tomorrow!

Being a couple of drinks in by now this is both exciting and disappointing in equal measure. Fortunately it appears (time will actually tell) that I can in fact cancel my original booking (and get a refund!) and re-book the new tickets for early tomorrow …so I do.

So the new plan is, up at 0430 (yes that is what I said!) cycle 12 miles across Madrid, get a train to Jerez and then cycle 30 miles to a campsite that looks open.

Let the shenanigans commence!

We do get up at 430, we do cycle all the way to the other side of Madrid and despite the hideous number of people we are suddenly surrounded by we do have time to check with the Renfe desk that my erroneous tickets are cancelled and will be refunded (he clearly clocks our bikes btw!) we queue (with our bikes) we check in (yes for a train and yes with our bikes) we unhook all our panniers and put them through the X-ray machine (again, yes for a train and yes again with our bikes) we queue again and finally at 701 (for our 705 train) the lady checking tickets looks at us, our bikes and then us again and directs us to one side. “Ok” we think, “bikes go on last” ….but is it not to be!

Turns out, after much heated, only partially understood, discussion “bicicleta” according to Renfe means “folding bike in a bag”……not full sized bike covered in a 1100 miles of crap, with panniers and two slightly stinky English guys.

Despite our pleading, arguing and (yes it happened) begging, the answer is “non”…..we are clearly not going anywhere today on a train with our bikes. We of course don’t walk away lightly but eventually we do have to just walk away…they will not be moved we are not getting on a train.

We are now trapped (I don’t use that word lightly …that is how it feels!) in Madrid with no obvious way backwards, forwards or sideways (when we ask the person seemingly in charge they insist that travel with our bikes in Spain is “impossible” and he then just walks away. He also helpfully confirms that a refund is not possible this time because the train has now left!!!) It’s very much time for us to walk away though!

Eventually and reluctantly we decide to leave the station and “re-group” !! We have had some low points and some challenges thrown at us on this adventure but honestly, this feels terminal.

We sit in stony silence outside the station for a good five minutes, contemplating our situation. It’s clearly not good but we are both determined ( and I mean like really determined!) to get out of Madrid today, one way or another. Our new plan is to book a hire car, get to Seville and then simply pedal our hearts out to catch up whatever we need to do. A quick search online reveals the only one way hire car vehicle in Madrid is at the airport …and yes you guessed it, that’s about 5 miles back past where we originally started at 0430 this morning .

Eventually, around 0930, another 12 miles of cycling and around eleventy squillon (not billion you will notice!) pounds later we are at the airport chucking our bikes and all our worldly possessions into the back of a hire car. This will seem unbelievable but it’s also worth recording that 500 yards before arriving at the airport my pannier rack decided it had had enough and snapped…yet another issue we need to fix before we can cycle again.

We speed (not too speedy you understand!) across southern Spain pausing only briefly for food, comfort and a new pannier rack (very carefully selected and courtesy of Decathlon Seville) and arrive in Jerez around 1600.

We take a quick pitstop to replace the pannier, top up our water bottles and throw the car key at the receptionist and then we are off cycilng again….the difference being that now we are further south it is 35 degrees plus. It is hard to describe how debilitating that is (plus we get lost obvs) but that is easily the hardest 30 miles either of us will ever do!

Key stats for the day….17 hours travelling, 47.9 miles cycling, 300 miles driving, eleventy squillion pounds spent, zero miles on a train….damn it’s so good to be alive right now!

We are though now back on track and within striking distance of our goal!!!